Japanese ship hopes for help from someone other than Greenpeace’s Esperanza

Imagine you’re the skipper of the mother ship of a Japanese whaling fleet. A massive fire disables the ship’s engines in the frigid waters off Antarctica, and one of your crew goes missing. Who would you least like to hear from right now? That’s right — Greenpeace.

But that’s how it played out. Greenpeace’s Esperanza was the first ship from the outside world to reach the waters near the stricken 8,000-ton whale processor Nisshin Maru today. Japanese officials are saying there’s no danger, because it’s 100 miles off the coast of Antarctica.

Nishhin Maru with whaling vessels rendering aid
Photo/Greenpeace

But bad weather’s on the way, Greenpeace says. And remember that the Selendang Ayu was about 100 miles offshore when it got caught in bad weather in the Aleutians, and you know what happened then: a soybean-and-oil mousse job for some of Alaska’s incredibly biologically productive shorelines. Similarly, in Antarctica, one of the largest nesting colonies of penguins in the world will be sending chicks into the water in the general direction of where oil from the stricken whaling vessel might end up, said Greenpeace oceans specialist John Hocevar, adding:

If I were them I wouldn’t want to have to work with us either. But on the other hand, the potential for disaster is pretty serious because of the threat of an oil spill in a pristine environment.

Fortunately for the Japanese captain, the Seattle-based U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Sea was also not too far away. It detoured on its return to Rain City to try to help the Nisshin Maru.

Penguins in Antarctica — sans oil, for now
Photo/Dan Hayes

It’s unclear whether the Polar Sea is the right vessel to tow the stricken 426-foot processor ship, but the 236-foot Esperanza clearly could do the job — its captain is a veteran tug skipper, and it appears to be the most maneuverable vessel on the scene right now that’s also big enough to tow the processor vessel. More updates are promised over the weekend here, and I’ll try to check back on this Monday when I’m working the late shift for President’s Day.

I’ll sign off with this quote from Glen Inwood. He’s a flak for Japan’s Institute for Cetacean Research — which, naturally, is in charge of lobbying for regulations allowing more killing of cetaceans (such as whales.)

Anyway, Inwood says Greenpeace is grandstanding, and that its help is neither needed nor desired, adding:

The whole Greenpeace offer is a red herring

So once again we’re led to conclude: You just can’t make this stuff up.

Update 7 p.m.: On quite a somber note, it’s official now that the missing crewman, Kazutaka Makita, has died. His body was recovered today, though details are sparse for now about how he perished.